Steam
by turtleducklingg
Summary: One shot / Zutara week 2019 - day four, mentor. Katara teaches Zuko yoga to help him with stress, and Zuko can’t stop blushing.


Five minutes in, and Zuko was already beginning to regret doing this. To clarify, _this _referred to doing yoga with Katara in some vaguely enclosed hot springs with their friends nearby, while they both wore far too little clothes, and were surrounded by steam so thick that Zuko found it hard to breathe.

It had seemed like a good idea at first. Being the Firelord of a nation filled with a worrying amount of people wanting to assassinate him was far more stressful than he'd like to admit; perhaps he didn't need to admit it, though, because it seemed to be written clearly enough on his face that everyone had begun insisting he took a break. When Katara has suggested a trip with the '_Gaang' _to the outskirts of the Earth Kingdom, wherein she would teach him yoga, it had seemed far better than any other holiday suggestions.

Although, thinking back to it, he had flat out denied Aang's earlier suggestion to go on holiday in the Earth Kingdom, so perhaps the yoga really was the selling point. A more likely theory was that he had only agreed because Katara said it, but his complete lack of backbone when it came to her was not something he enjoyed dwelling on. Now, however, it seemed that the yoga theory was becoming less plausible every second.

"Remember to keep breathing deeply - in... and out... in... and out. Focus on clearing your mind," Katara said.

This part should have been easy for him. He had been meditating since he was a child and thought of himself as fairly good at it, but today, he couldn't seem to clear his mind for a single second. Unwanted thoughts popped into his head relentlessly - all, seemingly, to do with Katara. How he wasn't used to Katara's voice being this slow, this soft; whether it meant anything that Katara had insisted on teaching him yoga when Aang could have easily taught him; why Katara felt the need to do this in an area so steamy that it was necessary for both of them to take off a large amount of their clothes to do yoga. Admittedly, the last thought was the most pressing; she had told him earlier that it was simply the best place to do it, but he was certain the next thirty minutes would be much easier if they were doing this somewhere - no, _anywhere - _else.

"Okay, we're going to start now with some simple poses. I want you to open your eyes and follow my movements. We're going to begin with the warrior pose," Katara said, putting her arms above her head and sinking into a lunge.

Zuko followed suit, trying to ignore how much of a obvious _mistake_ it was to open his eyes. The steam - that stupid, godforsaken steam - had settled on Katara's skin, making it almost _glisten, _as if she was sweating in a way that was somehow profoundly attractive; a sort of glamorous perspiration, he supposed. The description admittedly lacked eloquency, but nonetheless, his heart had begun beating far too quickly and his face felt much hotter than usual. He had tried to prepare himself for seeing her in only her bindings, but _this _was a whole new territory; the only thing he could do was try to follow her movements with the least amount of looking at her as possible - an admittedly diffixult task, considering that he was meant to be watching what she did.

"Remember, keep breathing deeply at all times," she said; he wondered if she had noticed his breath had hitched, or if it was just part of teaching yoga. She turned to face him, presumably checking his form, and furrowed her brows. "Your cheeks look really red, are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah. The steam's just really hot," he said quickly, feeling his face get even warmer as he spoke.

She cracked a smile. "I thought firebenders were meant to be good with hot temperatures,"

"We are. The Fire Nation's just more of a - um, a dry heat."

"Huh, I always thought it was pretty humid there. I guess not as much as this though." She said, gesturing to the space around them.

"I don't think _anything's_ as humid as this."

"Well, that's what happens when you mix fire and water. You should get used to it."

"I don't know about that - feels like I'm suffocating."

She frowned, and there were a few drawn out moments of silence. Zuko tried desperately to focus on breathing deeply.

"We've gotten distracted. Let's go onto the next move."

—

Fifteen minutes in, and Zuko was more sure than he'd ever been that this was a mistake. They had moved onto something along the lines of the _downward polar dog _position - he didn't really care about the names, at this point - and he was currently alternating between insistently telling himself to breathe deeply, and internally yelling at himself to _stop looking at her body! _Yet, the steam (which he had now decided was his archenemy) had begun to dampen her bindings and turn them ever-so-slightly translucent, and he was honestly astounded that his face hadn't burst into flames yet.

He was sweating profusely, though, and found his hands slipping on the smooth rock below him as they entered the penguin seal pose. Katara noticed, and laughed playfully.

"Wow, you really _are _overheating in here, huh? And to think I actually considered doing this in a warmer hot springs, since you're a fire bender."

And just when he thought he couldn't possibly blush any more, he felt blood rush to his cheeks, letting out a half forced laugh. "Yeah... I'm glad you didn't,"

"You look really flushed, Zuko - I can bend away some of the steam, if you'd like."

"Um, yeah - that'd be great, actually. Thank you."

It _should _have been great, except once she had bent away some of the steam, he could see Katara more clearly. Perhaps if he glanced for only a moment and then looked away, he could still copy her movements - considering the state of embarrassment he was already in, it seemed to be worth a shot.

—

Unfortunately, his plan had only resulted in her needing to come over and correct his poses herself. He avoided her gaze persistently in an attempt to focus only on how soft her hands were, and not the fact that they were _on his body, _but this only seemed to frustrate her. After a while, she seemed to have had enough.

"Y'know, I feel like you're having trouble focusing on the poses. Maybe we should try something else." She said, thinking for a moment. "Maybe two person poses would work better."

Zuko was very sure that two person poses would _not _work better. He found himself nodding in agreement anyway.

They began with the seated cat owl, in which they sat down, held eachothers arms and leant back. Strangely, Zuko found the two person poses easier than what they had done before, and this seemed to please Katara. They went through a variety of different moves, a few of which made Katara burst into laughter, and Zuko to follow suit, and one of which that caused Katara to comment about him being _really strong; _Zuko proceeded to blush and, appearing quite flustered, almost let go of her completely.

Everything seemed to be going well, until the last poss - it was supposed to be a two person meditation, wherein they both sat facing cross-legged, pressing their hands together above their heads, and simply breathed. Yet, as they settled into the position, Zuko couldn't seem to keep his eyes closed for more than a few seconds. He had seldom seen her face this close to his, and everything seemed more potent; her eyes more vibrant, her complexion more rich, her lips more full. He couldn't find it in him to look away.

This time, Katara definitely noticed that his breath was caught in his throat. She opened her eyes, about to remind him to breathe deeply, but froze when she found his stare fixed on her.

They looked at eachother for a moment, before she broke into a playful smile. "You're still blushing. Should I remove more of the steam?"

He couldn't tell for the life of him if she really thought he was flushed due to the steam, or if she knew it was before of her; he shook his head nonetheless. "No, it's okay - we're almost done anyway, aren't we?"

"We're actually meant to stay in this pose for a while." She said, still smiling. "It's nice though, don't you think?"

He paused, trying desperately to figure out if that meant anything, or it was just a passing thought. Either way, he returned her smile. "Yeah, it is."

Neither of the pair closed their eyes, their gazes locked on eachother. It wasn't awkward by any means, but Zuko still couldn't quite grasp what was happening as her stare travelled from point to point on his face, eventually settling back on his eyes.

A strange sort of silence stretched on, their breathing becoming synchronised, and Zuko felt his eyes fall to her lips. They only stayed there for a moment before he pulled them back up to meet her stare, but Katara had felt his grip on her hands slacken slightly, and cocked her head.

"Do you want to kiss me?"

Zuko froze, his eyes wide, and allowed a moment to pass to make sure he had heard her correctly. A million questions filled his head - was this some spur of the moment thing, or had she liked him too, through all those months of him cursing how flustered he became around her? He wanted answers, yet her gaze didn't falter, and Zuko knew he needed to reply with _something. _He swallowed the resounding _yesyesyes _that rang through his head, and attempted to match the softness of her tone.

"Do you want me to?"

She smiled, a rosiness appearing on her cheeks as well, and brought their hands down so they rested between their laps, fingers still entwined. "I thought I'd made that pretty obvious - but yes, I do."

And, not allowing himself to ask questions, he leant in, trying to imprint the softness of her lips, the warmth of her hands, the scent that lingered on her skin, in his memory. Perhaps he was still far too sweaty, and perhaps there was still far too much steam in the air, but in that moment, Zuko decided it was perfect like this.

Yet, just as Katara moved her hands into his hair, the earth shook below them, and the voice of Toph rang through the hot springs.

"I think doing yoga would help more with his stress than _making out _with him, Sugar Queen!"

_Almost _perfect, that it.


End file.
